Over the past approximately forthy years, there has been a growing market for refrigerated dough products. These products are raw chemically leavened dough of various formulae. Typically, the dough is contained in tubular containers and is shipped in a pressurized condition. Typically, the pressure in the containers is about 15-20 psi, but can go as high as 35 psi. The dough weight in the containers can range from about 2 oz. to about 16 oz.
These dough products have constantly shown improvement both in quality and packaging. With regard to packaging, one of the very early containers was a convolute can as exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 1,811,772. This particular type of container was made by wrapping of the paperboard about a mandrel to form multiple layers. After wraping of the paperboard, one end of the container was sealed with a crimped on end. The dough was placed in the partially closed container, and thereafter, the open container end was sealed with a second crimped on end. A label was placed on the outside of the tublar sidewall. This particular form of container did not lend itself well to high speed mass production, but was effective in containing the dough.
The convolute form of container, because of its shortcomings, was replaced with a helically-wrapped container which required less material, functioned just as well and better in some circumstances, and was well adapted to high speed mass production because the containers could be made continuously as opposed to a unit by unit production process for the convolute container. A typical container of the helically wound type is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,793,126. As in the convolute containers, the helically wrapped container had two crimped on metal ends on opposite ends of the tubular sidewall and could be lined with a water, oil and gas barrier material. The container was wrapped with a label. The helically wrapped container also provided the advantage of easy opening as exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 3,981,433.
Further, separate containers of other food products, for example, topping, icing or the like, can be contained within the dough container as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,851,757.
Common features of the above types of containers include paperboard sidewalls; liner material to prevent the ingress or egress of materials, for example, air, water, oil, CO.sub.2 and syrup; and a label to provide decoration, advertising and sidewall strength.
Although prior art containers have continually improved throughout the years, they still have certain shortcomings. Because the layers of material overlap or abut, they exhibit structural weak spots and are prone to the phenomenon called syruping. Syruping reduces the strength of the can and makes the can unappealing. Syruping is believed to be caused by loss or reduction of water binding capacity of the dough as it ages. The released water and its solutes attack any weak point in the can liner and consequently work their way to the can exterior severely weakening the can as well as making the can sticky and unappealing. Further, the paperboard sidewall is highly permeable and requires the use of impermeable liners and labels to be effective. Production of prior art containers requires multiple pieces of machinery in the production plant to wrap multiple layers of materials. Orientation of each of the layers of materials is extremely important, so the container will function properly, both in its barrier properties and in its opening features, particularly in self-opening containers. With regard to opening, if the can materials are not positioned properly, loud pops, which are objectional to consumers, can occur upon opening.
Another drawback of the above types of containers is that they do not lend themselves well to portion control. For example, if one opens a can of biscuit dough, all the dough has to be used at once. Once the container is opened, all the dough is exposed to the atmosphere, has no pressure and the container cannot be resealed to store the unused dough. To overcome this problem, different sizes of cans are provided, for example, five count and ten count, to provide portion control. However, in doing so, the economy of larger size containers is lost.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome some or all of the foregoing deficiencies of prior art refrigerated dough cans.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a container which has an easy opening feature and good barrier properties.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved refrigerated dough can which can provide portion control.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a container which can be easily made in a mass production continuous manner.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a refrigerated dough can with non crimp end closure means.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a refrigerated dough can which can be molded from plastic materials.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a food container with an easy opening and tamper evidence features.